


Nothing More, Nothing Less

by firebolts (freelancejouster)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Baker Ginny, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Writer Draco Malfoy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-04-29 18:32:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5138213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freelancejouster/pseuds/firebolts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco and Ginny find each other in vulnerable places in their lives and come together against all odds, now, they have to deal with pulling themselves together and telling their families about their unlikely love story.</p><p>First eight chapters originally posted from 2012 to 2013 on Fanfiction.net.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Steps

**Author's Note:**

> An idea I've been toying with for awhile, which I'm really excited about. If I'm right, this should be quite a lengthy fic, so this is just the beginning! It's set about seven years after the trio leaves Hogwarts. As before, I don't own anything from the Potterverse, I just love the characters more than most real people. No infringement and all of that.
> 
> Enjoy!

Hermione, Luna, and Ginny were gathered in the kitchen of the small cottage Ron and Hermione had built in the hills near the Burrow. The home constituted a compromise between Ron and his mother: Mrs. Weasley had tried insisting that the newly married couple live with her, while Ron had wanted to move somewhere like Bulgaria or at least Romania. Now, almost five years later, their home was entirely different from the Burrow's cramped and eclectic interior, though cozy in a similar way; the rooms were airy and the woods pale. The couple had spent several months finding pieces of furniture from flea markets and fabrics that Hermione adored to magick them together which made everything come together wonderfully.

Earlier that day, Luna and Hermione had been shopping in Diagon Alley and had stopped over in the Bakery which Ginny had started with money that George had given her as start up. Nowadays, The Enchanted Cupcake was making a modest income-by no means near as successful as Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had been its first couple years, but making enough that Ginny had been able to pay more than half of the start up money back to the remaining twin. Upon showing their purchases to a slightly alarmed-looking Ginny, they'd noticed the engagement ring glittering on her finger and dragged her out the door, calling to her assistant, Louisa, that Ginny was taking a long lunch break.

Louisa merely smiled and waved after the group, laughing softly and shaking her head.

The girls bombarded their friend with a hundred questions as soon as they'd reached Hermione's home.

"I met him a while ago. I wasn't really even looking, not after the end of Harry and I..." Ginny's voice trailed off. The way they had ended still weighed on her heavily. The things both of them had said, they people they'd become. Despicable. All of it.

Hermione patted the younger woman on the back consolingly while Luna, true to form stayed stationary, elbows propped on the table and head cupped in her pale hands, staring dreamily into space. Ginny tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and the new engagement ring on her finger flashed in the sun filtering through the window.

"Forget about Harry, I never liked you two together anyways. Who's the new guy?" Luna asked, her voice popping through the mist of Ginny's old memories. She shook her head to free herself from them.

"Yeah," Hermione chimed in, smiling, in an attempt to distract her friend, "do we know him?"

"You never liked me and Harry together? You never told me before today, miss," Ginny said with a smile, pushing the memories of the previous relationship to the back of her mind to tease her friend.

"Oh, she's only saying that because she fancies him," said Hermione with a laugh and wave of her hand. Then, realizing what she'd said, the brunette yelped and clapped her hands over her mouth, having turned bright red, her eyes wide. "Oh, I know I wasn't to say anything and Luna, I'm so sorry."

"You and Harry?" Ginny asked, with a small smile, "That might just work. You and he were always a bit more connected than he was to everyone else. The thestrals and all that. You understand him a bit more."

A small voice in the back of her mind whimpered, but Ginny ignored it.

Luna, oblivious to Ginny's inner thoughts, squealed and then said, "Well, it's nothing big yet, we've just been on a few dates. But, that's not important. We're here today because you are engaged to someone you've never introduced us to, which is just completely unacceptable, so. Do we know him?"

Ginny's smile faded; she bit her lip and fidgeted with the blue gingham tablecloth and ventured, "You definitely know him."

"We went to school with him, then, I'd guess," Luna said, cocking her head, as if remembering something she wasn't quite sure of. Ginny merely nodded, now picking at the chipping purple nail polish on her left thumbnail.

Hermione squinted slightly and pursed her lips, "If you're ashamed of him, why did you agree to marry him? We're going to have to meet him sometime, I mean-"

She was cut off abruptly by Ginny bursting, "I'm not ashamed of him, not in the slightest. I love him for fuck's sake! He's a wonderful man and he's kind to me and provides for me and knows just what to say-"

"Sounds like a Slytherin," Luna joked. Hermione let out a laugh and began to say that Ginny would never, but then saw how pale the red-haired girl had turned.

There was a long pause before Ginny spoke up, her voice defiant but soft, "And if he is?" She didn't look either of her friends in the eye, her cheeks flushed and the polish on her left hand almost completely gone.

"I, for one, would denounce her," Luna said, completely deadpan. Hermione abruptly laughed and then looked to Luna to make sure she'd been joking. The pale girl's face was broken in a wide grin.

Hermione crossed to Ginny's side of the table and hugged her tightly. She spoke softly, "We can't help who we fall in love with, Sweetheart. It doesn't matter now and it wouldn't have mattered before. We'll support you no matter what. Though, it's easier to support you if you tell us who exactly we're supporting next to you..." she teased lightly.

And Ginny said his name so softly that Hermione wasn't sure that she'd heard her friend correctly. "Excuse me?" Piped Luna from her spot across the table.

Ginny took a deep breath and looked up with a smile slowly spreading across her face at the formation of his name, "Draco Malfoy."

The name hung in the air for a long moment until Luna gasped in a rush, "Oh, he was so attractive at Hogwarts, I bet he's a total babe now!"

"Oh, he's so attractive, you don't even know," Ginny said with a relieved laugh.

"And, how is he? I'll bet he's tremendous in the sack! A body like that..."

Ginny laughed and turned to Hermione, Ginny's face falling as she saw that the brunette was looking rather worse for wear. "Hermione?" Ginny asked softly, placing her hand on her friend's arm, "Are you alright?"

"I was just..." Hermione trailed off and then said quickly, "Just think of how the boys will take it, Ginny, they used to be such rivals and now... Ron'll kill him! Ron'll outright kill him! He will!" She realized how hysterical she sounded and then took a deep breath and spoke slowly, choosing her words very carefully, "I support you, I think, it's just... think of all the history we have against him. We only know the version of him who terrorized us during Hogwarts and I think it will take a lot for us to change our opinion of him... I am willing to try and forget, or even possibly attempt to start afresh, but it has to be you who tells Ron and Harry," Ginny looked alarmed but Hermione pressed on, "yes, you even have to tell Harry. It takes more than a minute to get over hurt, love. Likely, it'll take more than a year."

Ginny had realized that the boys would need to know at some point and had mostly toyed with the idea of a sort of blurted announcement of her intention to marry Draco Malfoy at a busy family dinner and then just sort of run until the lot of them simmered down. Or perhaps just bringing him along for one. They were a strong family, no one got kicked out for long. Hell, the lot of them were even talking Percy again after he'd given them up for the Ministry all those years ago. Everyone used it against him in arguments, but still. Draco was a person for fuck's sake.

The little voice in the back of her mind whispered that a person might be worse.

She hadn't thought of telling Harry, though. Well, that was wrong. She'd thought about telling him often, but never considered that she would be the one to actually go about telling him. She hadn't been around him much since their falling out. Sure, she saw them at gatherings of friends, but they rarely spoke and when they were forced to it was merely pleasantries. Nothing solid or of substance. They'd never really connected, she and Harry, they had so little in common and he never had as much time for her as he'd had for saving the world or even Ron and Hermione. But she always got a little fluttery feeling behind her navel when she thought of him. Telling him about her new fiance was almost as terrifying as the prospect of actually marrying Draco Malfoy.

She still found it incredible that he could be interested in her. That she, Ginerva Weasley could be the object of Draco Malfoy's affection. This terror wasn't embarrassing or scary, but more of awe. And a bit of nervousness, as if it might end at any second.

Ginny checked her watch and saw that it was time she got back to The Enchanted Cupcake. She hugged Luna first and then Hermione, and when they'd broken apart, she held her friend at arm's length and asked softly, "Do you still support me?"

Hermione took a deep breath and then, after a moment, nodded, "I support you fully, dear, but I can't say that I accept him. Will you bring him around sometime?"

Ginny laughed and hugged her tightly, "Yes! Next week? Saturday morning?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Saturday morning, but you'll need to tell Ron beforehand."

"Oh, I can probably do that," said Ginny with a smile, and she walked to the edge of the yard and apparated with a pop.

When she returned to The Enchanted Cupcake, Louisa was completely covered in flour and there was a line of seven witches and wizards behind the counter, each waiting to order something from her. Ginny shooed Louisa to the back to finish whatever had coated her in flour and expertly took over, charging a grumpy old wizard extra on his coffee and three muffins and giving the five-year-old daughter of a regular client a free frosted cookie.

"Aye, I'm sorry Miss Ginny," called Louisa from the back as Ginny handed over the cookie to the little girl.

"Oh, it's not your fault, I didn't realize how long I'd be gone. I hadn't realized I'd be leaving at all actually. So, you needn't be sorry. I'm rather sorry, in fact," replied Ginny, half listening to herself ramble and half plating a piece of red velvet cake for the little girl's mother. She poured a glass of milk and set them both on the counter. To the woman, she said, "One galleon, eight sickles, and three knuts." The woman smiled and placed a handful of coins on the counter and left with her food. The duo sat at a small table in the corner of the bakery, the daughter's legs dangling from the chair as she was far too short to reach the floor.

"What'd your friends take you for anyway?" asked Louisa, peeking around the door, relatively cleaner but flour now-or still-on her nose.

"They came in to show me what they'd bought and saw the ring."

"It's from Mr. Malfoy, innit?" Louisa's voice sounded every so slightly on edge, as if she were disgruntled about something.

Ginny didn't notice and smiled to herself, admiring the ring in the lights adorning the counter. The silver band wrapped around her finger intricately, crisscrossing and weaving among itself. Beneath, small diamonds and emeralds peeked out, almost as if they were hiding within the ring. And then, in the center was a large diamond, the silver metal wrapping ever so slightly against it and around it. It was beautiful and, according to Draco, ancient, handed down from his grandmother from a great great great somebody or other who was unfortunate enough to have a goblin fall in love with them. "That it is," Ginny responded to Louisa.

"Din't he used to be one of them death eaters?" asked Louisa. Ginny stiffened and turned towards the door where the girl stood, she quickly ducked out of the room and called softly, "I was just askin'."

After a long moment, Ginny responded, "A lot of us did things we weren't proud of while we were teenagers. I understand if you don't understand that, as you're still a teenager yourself," the emphasis was hard and meant to reprimand Louisa, who, sure enough, blurted back that she wasn't so young but Ginny cut her off, "I'm not finished yet. I've been through a lot more than you, you weren't even at Hogwarts during the war. I fought in it. I lost a brother during it. I made decisions I wasn't old enough to make and did things that I regret. I've lived a lot more than you, even if I'm not that much older than you. Trust me to make my own decisions." She paused for a moment and then ended with, "you weren't just asking."

Louisa was silent for a long time until she said, "I apologize. I didn't realize how offensive my question was. I just... I don't want to see you hurt," and then, as an afterthought almost, she added softly, "You're kind."

Ginny smiled slightly and then said, "You're still a brat."

Louisa smiled as she put the bread she'd been making in the oven and replied, "I know, I practice."

At four thirty, they shooed the last of the customers out the door, turned the sign on the door to closed, and Ginny locked up. She walked to the end of the street and apparated home, anxious to see her boyfriend.

No, her fiance.


	2. Coming Home

Ginny apparated to the street outside of her apartment building and almost landed on top of a small, hunched elderly man who laughed slightly maniacally and then moved out of her way and continued on his way. She called apologies behind him and upon not being acknowledged, she jogged to catch up and put her hand on his shoulder, addressing him, "I am deeply sorry, sir. I didn't think of someone in the street as there's not usually many people about, walking around. Please forgive me."

The man's wizened face creased in confusion and he mumbled something in a language Ginny wasn't familiar with and continued on his way. She was left in the street, not knowing what to say. She watched as he ambled to the end of the sidewalk and then turned the corner and she was alone. A wisp of wind blew fiercely against her shoulders, barely covered by her thin purple tank top, and she shivered slightly, glancing around the street before walking inside her building, an uneasy feeling following her.

She trudged up two flights of stairs and walked down to the end of the hall where her apartment was. Ginny pulled out her wand and murmured the special unlocking spell that Hermione had devised in her first years at the Ministry-where she worked to make the wizarding world more secure and safe.

The door opened and Ginny walked inside, smiling as she smelled Draco's favorite tea on the stove and heard him typing from the study. She heard him pause and then his voice filter over, "Ginny? How was your day, Darling?"

"Well..." she hung her bag up on one of a set of hooks along the wall and went to the teapot to sip some of the brew, "The morning was good, George did some advertising for me, I guess, as he made these disgusting, prank cookies for people to buy for their friends and hung a sign next to it that was like, 'Hey, if you want cookies that actually taste good, go visit The Enchanted Cupcake,' which was great for business. But then", here, Ginny's mouth became incredibly dry, but she swallowed hard and pressed on, "just after noon, Luna and Hermione came in and saw the ring you gave me and asked eight million questions and Hermione freaked out and..." Ginny trailed off, emotions building in the back of her throat and not wanting to sob. Instead, she sat down where she was.

She heard him come down the hallway and kneel next to her. He kissed her forehead softly and she looked up at him, butterflies flitting around her stomach from his soft touch. "Tell me we're not crazy," she whispered.

He smiled softly and ran his pale fingers through her red locks and whispered back, "I can't tell you that, love. I can tell you that we're brilliant together and I adore you endlessly and that I am more than willing to give up everything for you: money, friendship, family," he trailed his hands down her face, rubbing gently over her cheek, and down, lower, to cup her breast, "You'll be my family. You're all I want, love, nothing more, nothing less."

And she leaned up towards him and kissed him soundly. Immediately, Draco pulled her against his chest and kissed her back, anchoring her to him with his strong arms. Ginny's entire body felt like it was waking up after a long sleep, every part of her, from her forehead to her fingertips to her toes, felt like it was coursing with electricity at his touch. His strong hands traveled down her slender body, cupping and tracing her features.

She darted her tongue against Draco's lips, which he parted ever so slightly to allow her access. Their tongues twined and Ginny moaned softly, pulling his face even closer to her. And suddenly, to Ginny's delight, he was on top of her, pulling her shirt over her head and his cock hard against her inner thigh. He kissed every inch of skin he could, his hands traveling behind her to unhook her bra, which, with a gasp from Ginny, fell away. Draco's tongue rasped over her nipples, eliciting more, louder moans from Ginny, who was silently thanking Hermione for the noise-canceling charm which had been woven into the lock.

Ginny pulling his shirt over his head and ran her hands over his bare chest and shoulders, enjoying the feel of his lean muscles and smooth skin under her fingertips. She traced down his forearms, and as was customary, he stiffened ever so slightly when her fingertips brushed over the fading dark mark on his left arm. Aggressively he pinned Ginny's arms above her head and held her there to stop her from touching his past.

After a few more, sweet, sensual moments, Draco entered her there, on the kitchen floor and they became one for the moment, rocking and sweating and moaning and feeling together. They laid together, after, for a long moment before Ginny complained of the cold tiles and Draco slipped his slacks back on, carrying her to the bedroom where they laid together a while longer, Draco running his fingers through her hair and she breathing in his smell after a day of being away from him.

"So, today was...weird for me," started Ginny, "How was yours, love?"

She rolled onto Draco's bare chest and looked into his clear, gray eyes which crinkled up at the corners in a smile. "Well, I slept for several hours after you left for work, I made myself tea, I popped over to my assistant's to drop off a new poetry anthology idea and pick up the editing on the book and ended up writing a few letters in response to fan mail, went 'round to Mother's for lunch, came back here, made more tea, and then wrote and implemented changes while I waited for you to get back from work."

"You get fan mail?" asked Ginny, curious. They'd been together for just less than a half year, and living together for almost a month now, and she knew that he wrote under a pen name because of his past and did well for himself as he didn't really need or want his family money, but she'd never really realized how much weight he had as a writer until that moment.

"Well, yes," answered Draco. "Most of it I don't even read, Astoria goes through it and finds the most compelling and the most interesting and the donations and such and I read that while she gets to read the boring and short and pointless."

"Hmm. I didn't realize how important you are," said Ginny, kissing his nose.

Draco pretended to preen for a moment, and said, "Yes, I'm critically important."

Ginny laughed and licked his cheek in play, then asked "so, how's your mum?"

"Arrogant but understanding. I'm convinced that she has a sweet spot for you, though, as she asked for you by name instead of calling you 'that Weasley girl' as she used to when I first started mentioning you."

Ginny laughed and rolled off of him, frowning as she stretched her back out with a few loud cracks. Draco was used to this but looked slightly concerned and shifted towards her to rub her back. "Mmm, lower?" she asked, and Draco complied until her back felt more like it should.

When he'd finished, Ginny sat up and blurted, "To pacify Hermione, I agreed to brunch with her and Ron and Harry and everyone, really, two Saturdays from now. Is that alright? I just, she wanted to meet you how you are now and said that she was willing to put everything in the past if it'd seemed like you... if you got along with them." Ginny's face was anxious.

Draco looked directly into her eyes for a moment and then looked down at his hands and said softly, "We all made mistakes at Hogwarts. They're just as much at fault as I am."

A shiver went down Ginny's spine, she didn't want to anger Draco by defending her friends, but it made her queasy to have him insult them in such a way. She set her jaw and took a deep breath, tears in the corners of her eyes, and said, "How do you figure?"

A frightening look crossed Draco's face and he laughed, an awful, empty sound; Ginny scooted away from him slightly, uneasy. Draco spoke, "Right from the start, they thought that they were better than me, the three of them, "the golden trio", everyone adored them thought the were always breaking rules and getting in trouble and putting people's lives in danger and somehow I got put as a bad guy for having money and getting put in Slytherin.

"So I started acting the part and listening to my father more. And then I was just like him. And then I woke up one day and I was twenty and I hated all the decisions I'd made to be like him and to be not like "the golden trio," and I wanted to kill myself. So I wrote about it under a different name and it sold well. And I still hated my life, but I had even more money to sit about and I had found a talent that actually made people like me, which had been rare for the past...several years. But, the self-hate kept hitting me, wave after wave of it. And, well, you know what happened after that..."

Ginny was confused for a moment and was about to say that she didn't know what happened at all, but then it hit her. Where they met.

She hugged him to her chest, and after a moment of stiffness, he hugged her back tightly. She whispered to him softly, "I'll never let you go."

And Draco looked up at her, softened by her hug and in that moment, she felt so connected to him that she teared up ever so slightly. He brought his hand to Ginny's face and brushed away the salty water and mumbled something softly. Ginny hadn't heard so she asked him to repeat himself. The second time she heard him, however.

"So, breakfast at the Weasel's?"


	3. You Used To Date Harry Potter?

The next several days passed smoothly and without incident. The bakery did well, Draco continued to write, and he and Ginny continued to spend as much time as they could together.

She didn't tell him out loud, but Ginny loved waking up next to him every morning and seeing his pale face so at ease. Even more so, she loved sleeping next to the person she cared about most.

The one thing that marred the building of their life together was the thought of having to tell Ron and Harry about Draco before the breakfast next Saturday. The thought built and bothered Ginny daily, so much so that Draco eventually decided for her that she would just tell the two of them at the monthly Weasley dinner, which was, coincidentally, the Wednesday before the breakfast was scheduled.

Two days before the dinner, Ginny was at the bakery and the thought was apparently occupying her as Louisa, who was in for the other assistant, Geoffry, who apparently had been off doing ridiculous things and landed himself in Saint Mungo's, flicked her arm and said, "Miss Ginny!" quite loudly, quite near her.

Ginny shook her head clear and asked the younger girl what she wanted. In response, Lousia pointed to the bowl of brownies which Ginny had distractedly whisked near flat. Ginny swore softly and reached for extra sugar and peanut butter to attempt to turn the ruined bars into a decent fudge. "I said your name, like, dozens of times. Where is your brain lately?" asked the curly-haired, recent Hogwarts graduate.

"Inflicting worry upon me," laughed Ginny bitterly, flicking her wand so that a wooden spoon sprang up from the counter and started stirring the new ingredients into the ruined brownies. More stirring to solve the over-stirring.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" asked Louisa.

"Not particularly," said Ginny stubbornly and stirring the fudge more fiercely, splattering bits of chocolate from the bowl and onto the women. Louisa opened her mouth to say something as a bit of the batter splashed onto her apron. She closed her mouth again, set her jaw, and went into the front of the bakery, leaving Ginny to herself. Ginny turned to where Louisa had been, wrinkled up her nose, and stopped stirring the fudge. Ginny crossed her arms over her chest and took several deep breaths to calm herself down. It wasn't the girl's fault that she had to introduce Draco Malfoy to the great Harry Potter as her fiance. It wasn't really anyone's fault, except Ginny's own. And that wasn't really a fault but a necessity.

When the two of them had met, there hadn't been anyone to blame for the spark or the warmness that had connected them immediately. There hadn't been anyone to blame for the attraction and the camaraderie that hit them both within the first week. Perhaps they could have blamed the situation or the powerful spells they were under, but they didn't feel the need to.

"Louisa?" called Ginny before digging for a pan to pour the fudge into. She heard the girl talking to a customer and laughing and then after a moment, the ding of the register as Louisa deposited the money they made.

"Yes'm?" asked Louisa, sticking her head around the door frame. Seeing Ginny bent over, her eyes widened and she blushed slightly, but entered the room fully, "Miss Ginny?" she asked, confused.

"Oh, I'm just looking for that damned pan," said Ginny, digging around in the cupboards beneath the table she'd been working on, "You know the one? It's mostly flat, dark gray, supposedly nonstick, though you need piles of butter to make it that way. I always use it for fudge..." she trailed off, halfway inside the cupboard by this time. Louisa crossed to the opposite side of the room, knelt down to the cupboards there, and pulled the pan in question from beneath a stack of bowls.

"We store the flatter pans over here, now, Miss Ginny. It saves room." Louisa set the pan on the counter above Ginny as the red-head extracted herself from the cupboard. Instead of standing, Ginny crossed her legs and sat there, on the floor.

"I am so worried," started Ginny, swallowing hard, "because I have to introduce my fiance to my ex-boyfriend. And this would be something awful to begin with, even if they weren't, like, arch-enemies at Hogwarts. Which they were. And-"

Ginny attempted to continue to try and explain what was going on with her but was interrupted by a shriek from Louisa and her shouting, "YOU USED TO DATE HARRY POTTER?"

Ginny was taken aback by Louisa's exclamation, and watched her jumping around and arm flailing with confused bemusement, eventually answering, "Um, yes?"

"The-most-famous-wizard-of-your-generation-Harry-Potter? The-boy-who-lived-Harry-Potter? The-boy-who-defeated-the-Dark-Lord-who-is-now-an-extremely-handsome-man-Harry-Potter?" Louisa appeared to be hyperventilating and was fanning herself with her hands. Ginny pulled a chair over from the corner and with a flick of her wand, the layer of flour that had been resting on it whisked to the floor.

Louisa sat heavily, still fanning herself and squealing occasionally.

Ginny leaned over her, took a deep breath, and did the thing any good friend would do, by asking, "Yes, all of the above. Would you like to meet him?"

After an awkward talk with an ever-resilient Kreature who muttered awful things about her entire family while Ginny knelt in the fireplace through which she had flooed only her head, she convinced the stooped, old elf to fetch Harry from the garden where he was practicing qudditch as she knew he would be. For years, he'd had the same schedule. He was so strict with it, needing control over everything, that Ginny could pinpoint exactly what he was doing at any given moment of the day. She understood it, she supposed, as he had never had much control over anything in his life thanks to the Dursleys and then Dumbledore.

Ginny stayed there on the hard floor, her knees starting to hurt from the position, for several minutes. Just as she was debating leaving, half-accepting that Kreature had gone to roam the hallways as was his favorite pastime, she heard a shuffle of feet, arguing voices, and a door shutting. This followed with more scuffling and arguing voices as Harry banished Kreature outside.

"Ginny?" Harry's voice travelled down the hallways to reach her. She shivered slightly, swallowing, and consciously thinking about Draco and how excited Louisa would be in a few minutes.

"Here," called Ginny.

She heard him walk towards her, though various rooms of his over-sized home. He still owned Number 12 Grimwald place, of course (the dangers of selling it being far greater than the thought of an empty house), but couldn't bear living there with all the memories that surfaced regarding himself and more seriously, Sirius. After a long moment, Harry tromped around a corner and she got the full sight of him. She soaked in his windswept hair, his muddy-from-quidditch clothing, and the crooked smile that flew upon his face when he saw her, "Ginny!" he exclaimed as she swallowed hard.

She forced a smile onto her face and asked, "How've you been?"

"Oh, you know. Alright," Harry said, shrugging. "I've just discovered this awesome quidditch move where if you leap from the nose of your broom and like do a flip thing onto a bludger there, you can slip under your broom and then with the momentum from the bludger, you'll land back onto the broom. It feels so amazing when you don't get hit in the ribs. That only even happened once and it was because I aimed wrong and..."

Ginny listened as he enthused over his newfound move, watching his eyes light up and his hands move to emphasize points. There was something so...animated about him that she couldn't help missing the days that they'd had together before the war and before everything got so complicated. Eventually Harry said, "So, enough about me, what brings you here?"

Ginny glanced at his feet because it was easier than looking at his face and remembering everything and said softly, "My friend Louisa who helps me at the bakery fangirled all over the place when I mentioned that I'd dated you," she laughed slightly and continued, "I was wondering if you could possibly come have lunch with her? And then we could catch up a little? There's that shop that Angelia works in sometimes, it's supposed to have great wine for cheap." She looked up at him then, to catch his expression.

Harry looked exasperated and a little let down, saying, "You came here for a fan? I was hoping I would get to hear you say that you wanted to bang me on the floor or something."

Ginny's eyes widened and then she laughed a little too loudly when she realized that he was joking. "Well that was the second option," she quipped.

"So your friend wants to meet me?"

"Yessir," Ginny laughed, at ease now.

He looked down at himself, "Can I change first?"

She nodded and said, "Just come to the store when you're ready. Soon, though, I mean. Louisa might faint or something."

Harry laughed and went to leave the room, "I'll get right on that."

Ginny leaned backwards and was back in The Enchanted Cupcake. The smell of fudge hit her nose and she scampered to the oven to check on the pan. She slipped her favorite blue, polkadotted oven mitts on her hands and pulled the pan from the oven, inhaling deeply. Perfectly done.

"Louisa?" called Ginny, setting the pan down on the counter and making a stream of cool air filter through her wand to blow over the fudge.

"Here!" called Louisa from the register. When she didn't enter the room, Ginny joined her and the front counter and was surprised to see more than a half dozen people in line at the counter

Ginny took over for her, asking, "How can I help you Mrs. Garcia?" to the lady in front of the line.

"Yes," smiled the stooped old women. She was small and wrinkled and still had jet black hair except for gray wisps near her temples. "I was wondering if you could make me some of those special cakes. You know, chocolate. With rum," she smiled sweetly again, blush rising in her cheeks.

"Is there a frosting you'd like?" laughed Ginny.

Mrs. Garcia nodded and ordered cream cheese, specified her designs, and placed an order for four cakes with delivery in a week, "I have a boy I'd like you to meet," she said before leaving, winking conspiratorially, "My son's home from Albania."

"Sorry ma'am, I'm taken," sad Ginny, flashing her ring.

"Well," said the little woman, "the other, then?"

Louisa just shrugged as she handed a couple red velvet cookies to the man who had been in line behind Mrs. Garcia, saying, "I could meet a boy, I suppose."

"He's wonderful," she promised, beaming as she left the store.

The girls just laughed and helped the other witches and wizards in line, doling out buns, cakes, cookies, and juices with heavy-handed generosity that the store was known for already. It was only when they had finished, the customers all seated or headed for the door, that the two of them relaxed, wiped their hands on their aprons, and looked around.

Everyone jumped when Louisa shrieked and fainted, falling to the ground. Ginny glanced over at what the younger girl had seen and discovered none other than Mr. Harry Potter standing in the doorway to the back of the shop.

He cringed and looked down at her and then over at Ginny, asking, puzzled, "Does she do that often?"

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter originally posted 2012 on Fanfiction.net


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